Portus Plus - June 30, 2010

full name / name of organization:

RETE - Association for the Collaboration between Ports and Cities

contact email:

portusplus@reteonline.org

1. Portus plus

Portus plus is the new ‘online-magazine’ of Portus, the bi-yearly review that has been published in its printed version since 2001. ‘Portus’ and ‘Portus plus’ are two publications of RETE, the Association for the Collaboration between Ports and Cities, dedicated to the study of themes involving the relationship between port and city and the regeneration of urban waterfronts. In particular, exploiting the advantages of communicating on the Internet, Portus plus will become an opportunity to present original works, theoretical studies or the results of practical experiences, conducted in many countries around the world and concerning the fields of interest described above, reserving specific attention to the works of young scholars who often find it difficult to publish the results of their scientific studies. The papers submitted will be evaluated by a “Review Committee”, composed of prestigious international experts in the field, and, if they are considered worthy, will be published in the Portus plus digital magazine. The best articles in each edition will also be selected for publication on the pages of Portus magazine. Portus plus will be published twice yearly and may be consulted on the website of Rete: www.reteonline.org. The articles published in Portus plus will have the same value as the articles published in the printed version. Participation in the selection of articles may be requested by responding to the ‘call for papers’, following the instructions for submission.

2. Call for papers

The ‘call for papers’ for Portus plus is finalized towards the collection and diffusion on the web of interdisciplinary scientific documents, focused on the many themes of interest concerning port cities and urban waterfronts. The objective is to satisfy the demand for knowledge and for the diffusion of new research studies, policies, processes and actions in order to stimulate the interdisciplinary debate. The call for papers is open to articles from the world of science, academics and culture, from experts and technicians, from contributors who operate within institutions and research centers and in general from anyone who in any position has knowledge and experience in the various disciplines that deal with the following themes:

• The contemporary port city and the new models of port-city relationships
The regeneration of urban-port waterfronts
• Teaching the port city
• The Latin-American port city

All the papers that will be selected by the ‘Review Committee’ to be published in Portus plus, on the RETE website, will be given an ISNN code, the international number that identifies articles within periodical publications.

3. The themes

The themes addressed in the single papers may concern the plurality of dynamics involved in port cities and urban waterfronts, from the point of view of different scientific-disciplinary approaches (economic, social, city-planning, cultural, etc.). In particular, the proposals should concern an issue related to the thematic areas specified below:

The contemporary port city and the new models of port-city relationships
The regeneration of urban-port waterfronts

The relationship between port and city has always evolved according to physical and functional models that have been reproduced over the centuries with little or no significant changes. In recent decades, these models have undergone important modifications, generated primarily by the profound transformations underway in the field of port organization and its inclusion in urban and regional contexts.
To improve the quality of the relationship between cities and their ports it is important to understand the various aspects of these changes that have taken place both in the way the port structures function and in the interactive dynamics between the two elements in question. The study of specific cases, in different countries, will help provide a better description of these phenomena, verifying the factors they have in common as well as their distinctive features, thus helping to adjust the tools of intervention to use in city plans.

Teaching the port city

Currently, more than half the world’s population is concentrated in cities, nuclei that basically act as organizers of the totality of the space on our planet. Within this global network of cities, port cities not only play a vital role in the dynamics of a globalized economy, but because they can rely on this type of infrastructure, they can count on a series of spatial, economic, social, cultural and environmental factors that define their dynamics, operation, and lifestyle.
Nevertheless, the port, the agent that characterizes this group of cities, on the average represents an unknown factor for most of society, including the people who live in the areas in which these infrastructures are located. This situation is also reflected in the way ports are treated in accredited studies, where they are generally considered from various points of view, with very different focuses on the contents in terms of conceptual impact and extension, and with a relative importance in the programs that, in many cases, do not appear proportional to their social economic and regional importance.
Considering that it is during the period of schooling that we acquire most of the concepts we use to interpret our world, and shape many of the perceptions which we use to construct the reality that surrounds us, we believe it is of extreme interest to introduce a line of investigation in the field of education, oriented towards teaching the port city, in the understanding that the end results, which should lead to the development of specific teaching products, might contribute more positively, in the medium and long term, to the improvement of the relationship between ports and cities.

The Latin-American port city

The major port cities in Latin America were founded between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. During the nineteenth century, the independence of the countries and the diffusion of steam navigation triggered a new phase of development in all the ports which, in general, has continued through the present day.
Currently more than thirty Latin-American port cities and their ports offer opportunities to develop projects to renovate some of the spaces they share or projects for their maritime heritage. To explore the history and the current possibilities for the conversion of port spaces in Latin America also means studying the intense relationship they have maintained with many European countries, especially Spain and Portugal. This type of exploration or line of research can and should advance the technical and economic cooperation between the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

4. Language

The papers may be submitted exclusively in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian.

5. Presentation of the papers

The papers to be submitted, no greater than 20,000 characters (spaces included), should be sent along with the Declaration of Responsibility (Attachment A) and the Registration Form (Attachment B). The papers must be edited and submitted by the authors in compliance with the Required Format (Attachment C) and accompanied by a brief Profile of the author (Attachment D).

The papers submitted for the evaluation of the Review Committee must be sent to the Organization offices of Portus plus (see point 8) before June 30 2010. The results of the selection by the Review Committee will be communicated by e-mail to the individual authors. The papers selected will be published in the first edition of Portus plus in December 2010, in the specific section of the Rete website.

7. The Review Committee

The papers sent in will be submitted for evaluation to a Review Committee, constituted by international experts in the themes described above, whose task will be to identify the papers that best respond to the requisites requested and satisfy the specified criteria.
The Review Committee will be constituted by: